Study on Electromagnetic Radiation Phenomenon in Electrical Wire Explosion

High-voltage pulsed discharges come with strong transient electromagnetic field due to the fast release of electric energy. Electrical explosion, as a special kind of pulsed discharge, exhibits more interesting electro-physical features than ordinary gas breakdown manner. In this study, we measured the electromagnetic field in the vicinity of an exploding Cu wire load. Meanwhile, the discharge waveforms and high-speed images were captured synchronously. The results revealed that there existed several electromagnetic radiation bursts within a single shot of wire explosion. Further analysis ascertained those radiations were closely related to the current variation through the wire load. In the frequency domain, the spectrum appeared wideband feature, and the majority of the energy is within 200 MHz. In addition, changing the discharge parameters can significantly alter the strength and frequency characteristics of the electromagnetic field and wave.